Expressing ongoing actions (English Present Continuous) with the present tense (Le Présent) in French

In French, there is no Present Continuous tense like in English to describe ongoing actions. Instead, you will use Le Présent (Indicatif)

Learn how to use Le Présent (Indicatif) to talk about ongoing actions in French

Look at these sentences:

Je mange un gâteau délicieux.I'm eating a delicious cake.

C'est toujours quand je prends une douche que le téléphone sonne!It's always when I'm having a shower that the phone rings.

In French, you use Le Présent (Indicatif) to describe actions that are ongoing in the present, whereas in English we would use the Present Continuous tense for these actions (as opposed to the Present Tense). 

Attention:

There is no equivalent of the Present Continuous tense in French, so for example, you can never translate I am working with Je suis travaillant. You use je travaille

 

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Examples and resources

Je lis un livreI read a book / I am reading a book
Marie travaille à Paris maintenantMarie is working in Paris now.
Je mange un gâteau délicieux.I'm eating a delicious cake.
C'est toujours quand je prends une douche que le téléphone sonne!It's always when I'm having a shower that the phone rings.
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